Double Row Diamond Horseshoe Ring in Tapered 10k Yellow Gold

A horseshoe is recessed into the face of this ring, opening upward, and two parallel rows of small round diamonds follow the curve of it from one heel round to the other. They are bead set into a white metal panel, and the ground between the beads is cut with a star pattern so the whole recess throws light back even where there is no stone. Either side of the shoe the yellow gold is broad, plain and polished, tapering back to a comfortable shank. 5.20 grams of 10k, with no horse head and nothing else competing with the shape.

Two rows rather than one is doing the heavy lifting here. Small stones set in a single line around a curve read as a row of separate dots; double them up and the eye joins them into a continuous band of light that follows the shoe all the way round. The star-cut ground behind them is the same trick applied to the metal. And the shoe points up, which is the way the old story says you hang one so the luck cannot run out — on a ring that orientation is set once at the bench and you live with it, so somebody thought about it. In this part of the world that is not just decoration. Whose luck are you carrying?